Okay so Matt's birthday was yesterday but we saved our family celebration for tonight because of our crazy t-ball/softball Tuesday nights. The kids & I decided about a week ago to attempt Bakerella's super cool Happy Meal idea...it came with instructions & pdf files, Auntie Tracie said it was easy & gave us some tips, we had time...why not?

It went well & we were relatively pleased with the finished product (I became acutely aware of how much I have mellowed over the years though)...but we thought we'd share a few tips of our own!

But first...here's a shot of our finished baskets.

Okay so on to the tips!!When your friend tells you that the most time-consuming part is the assembly of the papers, believe her! PDFs or not, there is still cutting & taping to be done...do not wait until 10pm the night before to start assembling the trays! :-)

One a side note...An extra step (but a great thing) was that I was not able to use the pre-printed "Happy Father's Day" fry bags. I printed the blank ones out about a week ago and Jack & EJ decorated them for me. Jack came up with some great things (by the way, the center top one is Matt & I) and EJ's were beautiful too. They truly made the project fabulous!!

When you put the 5-year-old on fry bag stuffing, prepare for the entire work area to be COATED in sugar. Seriously, I've never seen (or stepped on) so much debris...ever!! But doesn't he look cute doing it?

Before you embark on a project like this, make sure you know what the heck you're doing! Don't text your friend for info on the frosting as you are shopping (buying the wrong thing before you get her response but still believing it to be the right thing until you are using it 2 hours before you need the finished product with 2 napping girls so you have no ability to go buy the right thing) and maybe know a thing or two about using frosting rather than just glopping it on the best you can (from a ginormous tube opening because the cake tips you bought need an adaptor ring to be of any use).

Also...remember your brownie burgers (that you made first thing in the am) are over on the kitchen table & use them. Don't make 6 trays that look like this BEFORE you realize that a bun normally comes with a burger inside! (heck, I even took a photo & didn't realize it)

But most important, make sure to have the greatest hubby/dad in the world! One who is willing to come home after a day of work (in IL) and play along with the kids about the special "dinner" you made him. One who goes on and on about how great everything looks, how cool the fry bags are, and how yummy it tastes. And best of all, one who will ham it up and let you take a fun picture to post on your new blog!